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Red Wings 2024 Team Awards - Team MVP
The Hockey Writers Grind Line of Detroit Red Wings writers Devin Little and Evan Sabourin get together with producer Matthew Zator for the fourth annual Grindie Awards where they hand out end-of-season awards. Next up is the Team MVP. Nominees include Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, and Alex Lyon.
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0:00
Evan, I'll throw it to you for our final award of the night
0:03
And that's our team MVP. And yeah, the biggest one. This is like the best picture, that type of thing
0:11
So take it away. All right. Well, it's again, we're in the Broken Records Club
0:16
So for a team MVP, man, nominees are Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, and Alex Lyon
0:24
And for the third straight year, it's La La Land. Well, it's kind of like LA Larkin
0:33
So Dylan Larkin, of course, is the winner. After this amazing, you know, this season that we've already talked to ourselves over
0:41
100 times about, the captain was amazing this season. And I think it was one of his best seasons of his career
0:47
And even with missing the 14 games, we talked about how he could have been a 40 goal scorer
0:51
Don't need to get into that again. But the captain is something special. And this team goes as he goes
0:56
And I think the Red Wings perhaps knows that. And that's why he's locked up long term and why he's the face of the franchise
1:03
So can't go wrong with Dylan Larkin, man. I totally agree. He was the MVP
1:09
I mean, I guess Lucas Raymond would definitely be in the category, too. Obviously, he was nominated for a reason
1:15
But Larkin, all season, I mean, he was electric at the end of the season, too, pushing him
1:21
into the playoffs, potentially almost into the playoffs, tied for the last wildcard spot
1:28
Yeah, he definitely deserves this team MVP. I mean, we've said it many times in the show
1:34
So yeah. So for me, the reason why I voted for Dylan Larkin is it comes down to that month of March
1:42
I alluded to just a little bit ago. What happened in March
1:47
Dylan Larkin went down and missed pretty much the entire month with an injury
1:52
And we saw what happened. Lucas Raymond tried his best to carry that team along and keep them in playoff contention
1:58
But that team was not the same without their captain. I think that it's more than just one player
2:04
Hockey is like the ultimate team sport, in my opinion. So I don't know that you can pin it all on them not having Larkin
2:09
But I think we've seen time and time and time again that this Red Wings group is just not
2:16
the same team without Larkin. It doesn't matter how many people they bring in
2:20
It doesn't matter if they're riding hot, if they're riding cold, if they subtract Larkin
2:26
from the lineup, they very rarely stand a chance. And maybe that's something that needs to be addressed
2:31
In fact, I'd argue it definitely is something that needs to be addressed at some point. But that just goes to show that if your team goes from being a legitimate playoff, like
2:43
almost a lock, it felt like a lock in late February that they were going to make the
2:46
playoffs to then falling out of it and like, you know, ending where they did
2:52
Obviously, Larkin's a very valuable player. And in this case, for three years in a row now, he's been their most valuable player
2:59
So good on Larkin. I am very interested to see if he makes it a four-peat next year
3:05
I think we've seen Raymond kind of start his ascent into superstardom
3:11
He keeps that up. Is he going to be the MVP next year? What about Moritz Seider
3:16
What about if they happen to get a legit starting goaltender? I think that..
3:20
Like a first round. Yes, right. I think that Larkin should have quite the competition for this award next year
3:28
But as far as this year's award is concerned, he's still a slam dunk for it
3:32
I'm glad he won it
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